Assessing the availability of legal support through the ‘Help with family Mediation’ legal aid scheme

Figures & data

Figure 1. Number of solicitor-provided HwFM cases by year.

Table 1. Number of family mediation starts and HwFM (solicitor-provided) cases under legal aid.

Financial Year	Mediation Starts	Number of HwFM (solicitor) cases	% of starts accessing HwFM (solicitor)
2013–14	8,438	78	0.9%
2014–15	8,092	302	3.7%
2015–16	8,832	314	3.6%
2016–17	7,611	265	3.5%
2017–18	6,302	172	2.7%
2018–19	6,535	107	1.6%
2019–20	7,568	99	1.3%
2020–21	7,701	84	1.1%
2021–22	7,370	95	1.3%
2022–23	7,320	76	1.0%
Total	75,769	1,592	2.1%

Table 2. Number of private family matters receiving legal help through a solicitor and HwFM (solicitor-provided) cases under legal aid.

Financial Year	Legal Help (solicitor)	Number of HwFM (solicitor) cases	% of matters involving HwFM (solicitor)
2013–14	97,039	78	0.1%
2014–15	29,228	302	1.0%
2015–16	14,655	314	2.1%
2016–17	10,485	265	2.5%
2017–18	8,300	172	2.1%
2018–19	7,471	107	1.4%
2019–20	7,528	99	1.3%
2020–21	5,839	84	1.4%
2021–22	6,554	95	1.4%
2022–23	6,403	76	1.2%
Total	193,502	1,592	0.8%

Table 3. Number of solicitor-provided HwFM cases by dispute type and year.

Financial Year	Finance	Children	All Issues	Total
2013–14	29	37	12	78
2014–15	126	122	54	302
2015–16	165	100	49	314
2016–17	170	57	38	265
2017–18	106	38	28	172
2018–19	63	23	21	107
2019–20	63	21	15	99
2020–21	55	19	10	84
2021–22	67	18	10	95
2022–23	52	14	10	76
Total	896	449	247	1,592

Figure 2. 100% stacked column of solicitor-provided HwFM cases by dispute type and year.

Table 4. Recorded outcomes of all solicitor-provided HwFM from 2013 to 2023.

Recorded Outcome	Number	% of total
Financial benefit	436	27.39%
Non-financial benefit	503	31.60%
No recorded benefit	445	27.95%
Outcome not known	169	10.62%
Proceeded under other civil funding	39	2.45%
Total	1,592	100.00%

Table 5. Recorded outcomes of solicitor-provided HwFM by year.

Financial Year	Financial benefit	Non-financial benefit	No recorded benefit	Outcome not known	Proceeded under other civil funding
2013–14	14	27	26	11	0
2014–15	64	110	86	29	13
2015–16	87	98	98	27	4
2016–17	70	81	78	33	3
2017–18	42	63	47	18	2
2018–19	34	39	23	9	2
2019–20	31	29	22	12	5
2020–21	30	19	25	8	2
2021–22	27	30	24	9	5
2022–23	37	7	16	13	3
Total	436	504	445	169	39

Table 6. Multicollinearity results.

Coefficients^a
		Collinearity Statistics
Model		Tolerance	VIF
1	Dispute Type	.982	1.018
	Year	.980	1.021
	Financial Quarter	.997	1.003

^aDependent Variable: OUTCOME_NUM_BENEFIT

Table 7. Cross-tabulation of dispute type and dispute outcome.

Dispute Type	Financial benefit	Non-financial benefit	No recorded benefit	Outcome not known	Proceeded under other civil funding	Total
Finance	353	249	196	85	13	896
Children	29	177	165	57	21	449
All Issues	54	77	84	27	5	247
Total	436	503	445	169	39	1,592

Table 8. Cross-tabulation of dispute type and grouped dispute outcomes.

Dispute Type	Recorded benefit	No recorded benefit	Total
Finance	602	294	896
Children	206	243	449
All Issues	131	116	247
Total	939	653	1,592

Table 9. Coefficients for dispute type.

Variables in the Equation
		B	S.E.	Wald	df	Sig.	Exp(B)
Step 1^a	Dispute Type			59.356	2	<.001
	Dispute Type (1)	.882	.118	55.422	1	<.001	2.415
	Dispute Type (2)	.287	.159	3.261	1	*.071	1.332
	Constant	−.165	.095	3.042	1	.081	.848

^aVariable(s) entered on step 1: Dispute Type (Child First)

*Not statistically significant at the 5% level

Table

FIN_YR	FIN_QTR	CATEGORY	SUB_CAT3	SUB_CAT4	SUB_CAT5	CODE_2	CODE_2_DESCRIPTION	VOL	TOTAL
2015–16	3	Matters completed	Solicitor	Financial benefit	N/A	FMEC	Where the client is seeking advice in connection with mediation – children	3	360
2018–19	2	Other work completed	Specialist Telephone Advice Service	Determination	Case has no Merits	FMEF	Where the client is seeking advice in connection with mediation – finance	1	13.5